Tall Ships

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TALL SHIPS

Ahoy. What a winter storm system that passed though Southern California this week. The system generated 9-foot swells with gale-force winds. The sea conditions were so rough on Monday that the Catalina Flyer could not dock in Avalon to pick up the passengers wanting to return to the mainland. I commend the captain's decision. I am tracking the sea conditions very closely because I am leaving this morning to travel south of the border. I will be joined by Chandler Bell, who is a captain with Bongo's Sportfishing.

June Casagrande A fierce cannon battle is expected to break out in Newport Harbor on Friday -- and Saturday and Sunday. The Hawaiian Chieftan and Lady Washington, two 18th century replica ships, will sail into town Tuesday. And if their reception is anywhere near as enthusiastic as it was last year, the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum will likely be swamped with awed visitors. "It was a really successful visit last year partly because there's such a romance to these ships," said Wayne Eggleston, executive director of the museum.

The Argus, a 101-year-old tall ship that's been a popular fixture at the Newport Sea Base for 35 years, will be put up for sale on eBay this week, officials said Monday. The Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America operates the sea base and owns the ship. Boy Scout officials decided last week to try to sell the Argus after learning in January that it would need as much as $1.5 million in repairs to keep taking paying passengers. The ship, a 92-foot topsail ketch, was built in 1905 in Denmark as a work boat that hauled grain and lumber.

The 102-year-old tall ship Argus will be made seaworthy again, but once it's ship-shape, the vessel will need a new home. The Newport Sea Base, where the ship has docked since about 1972, signed a deal Thursday to sell Argus for $1 to the newly formed Argus Foundation. The foundation will work to raise the $1.5 million or more needed to repair the wood-hulled ship. Over the years, hundreds of Boy Scouts have learned to sail on Argus, a 92-foot topsail ketch that was built in 1905 in Denmark as a work boat.

Argus, which docks at Newport Sea Base, is deteriorating -- so much so that, at least for now, it's out of commission.When you're 101 years old, some of your parts inevitably start to deteriorate. A century on the sea has left its mark on Argus, a 92-foot topsail ketch that's taught hundreds of Boy Scouts how to raise a sail and handle a ship. Argus, a wood-hulled ship, has begun to decay to the point that Newport Sea Base officials have taken it out of service, and now they're taking a hard look at its future.

With its sails unfurled and a few cannon blasts, the tall ship Hawaiian Chieftain docked in Newport Beach on Wednesday after a roughly 300-mile, three-day voyage from Santa Cruz. A few spectators gathered at the Newport Sea Base to watch the 103-foot topsail ketch slowly emerge from the gray drizzle that hung over Newport Harbor Wednesday afternoon, chugging up the bay on motor power before making a U-turn to dock at the Sea Base. A reproduction of a typical European cargo ship of the 19th century, the Hawaiian Chieftain will be in Newport Beach through Jan. 10, offering tours and sailing trips.

Although the number of Pearl Harbor veterans continues to dwindle, it doesn't mean they'll be forgotten, at least not in Newport Beach. The tall ship Lynx, a 122-foot topsail schooner based in Newport Beach, will host a remembrance of Pearl Harbor on Thursday that includes laying a wreath in the Pacific Ocean and a cannon salute. The educational foundation that runs the Lynx is looking for World War II veterans to participate in the ceremony, which is in its fifth year, but they're often tough to find.

On the 65th anniversary of a foreign power's attack on American soil, veterans of World War II commemorated the occasion aboard a reminder of a much older conflict. As those present told stories of bombs and bullets, the ship they sailed on was straight from the age of cannon and sail. About a dozen World War II veterans and their family members gathered on a bright, clear Thursday morning in Newport Harbor for an outing and ceremony on the schooner Lynx, a tall ship built to represent an American privateer schooner from the War of 1812.

The 65th anniversary of the bombing at Pearl Harbor will be observed on land and at sea today in Newport-Mesa, with events at Orange Coast College and aboard the tall ship Lynx in Newport Harbor. While events may be few to commemorate the attack against the United States naval base on Dec. 7, 1941, they promise passion and patriotism. The "date which will live in infamy," as President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it, is one many will never forget. "I think it is important to remember the huge sacrifices that were made in this country and the vast amount of treasure that we expended to defeat Nazism and Japanese militarism," said Charles J. Quilter II, a retired Marine colonel who is working to complete his doctorate in history at UC Irvine.

With its sails unfurled and a few cannon blasts, the tall ship Hawaiian Chieftain docked in Newport Beach on Wednesday after a roughly 300-mile, three-day voyage from Santa Cruz. A few spectators gathered at the Newport Sea Base to watch the 103-foot topsail ketch slowly emerge from the gray drizzle that hung over Newport Harbor, chugging up the bay on motor power before making a U-turn to dock at the Sea Base. A reproduction of a typical European cargo ship of the 19th century, the Hawaiian Chieftain will be in Newport Beach through Jan. 10, offering tours and sailing trips.